


squared off

by engmaresh



Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Gen, Mystery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-11
Updated: 2017-03-11
Packaged: 2018-10-02 11:40:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 939
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10217228
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/engmaresh/pseuds/engmaresh
Summary: Jyn and Kaytoo are trapped in a box. Closet. Prison. Whatever it is, they need to get out.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Writte for Round One of the Rogue Robin Challenge on Jedifest.tumblr.com.

When Jyn comes awake with a jolt, the first thing she notes is the pitch darkness of wherever she’s at. She sucks in a deep breath. She can’t panic. There’s something hard and angular digging into the nape of her neck, so she carefully pushes herself upright, trying to keep her lower body as still as possible. She has no idea where she is, what she may be surrounded by. Best to refrain from any sudden movements.

After several seconds of rapid blinking to adjust to the darkness, the black fades into a sort of hazy gray, and she can see the faint outline of her hand when she waves in before her eyes. Time to find out where she is. She reaches out for the hard protrusion she’d been lying on. It’s durasteel, cold and smooth. Carefully, she slides her hand along the surface. There’s about three feet of it, lengthwise, before she comes a dip in the durasteel. It gives way to something ribbed, and alternating textures of metal and rubber. A joint. Kriff. She thinks she knows what this is. Who this is. 

With two hands now, she runs her fingers across the neck–or arm–joint and comes to another metallic segment. This one is smaller, more angles and dips, two slits for photoreceptors. She remembers Cassian’s hand guiding her to the nape, hooking her finger into that little notch in the rubberised casing that concealed the wiring. That slight brightening of Kaytoo’s photoreceptors before she flipped the switch. She hadn’t been sure if it had been suspicion, anger or just her imagination. He’d complained about later, accusing her of shoddy maintenance even though Cassian had performed the upgrade and done the rest of the work.

Jyn flips the switch and pushes the rubberised casing back into place. Carefully, as Kaytoo comes back online, she slowly scoots back, giving him space. 

Kaytoo’s photoreceptors flickers as his processors reboot. The little light they exude barely illuminates the grooves and lines of his face. Cautiously, Jyn scoots back a little more and fetches up against something hard and unmoving. A wall. A prison then?

With a whirr and slight clanking as he braces his hands against the metal floor, Kaytoo sits up, raising the dim lights of his eyes to a point above her head. “What did–”

“Shhh!” she hisses and he falls silent, though his processors whirr a little louder as he takes in their surroundings.

“Where are we?” Kaytoo finally asks, his voice as baleful as ever, but pitched much lower at the level of a human whisper.

“Not sure,” she whispers back.

“What have you been doing all this while?”

“I just woke up!” She tries not to snap. “I switched you on!”

His photoreceptors flicker and their light intensifies as he turns to scan the room they’re in. “Six feet by six feet,” he tells her. “There is a cleaning implement next to you.”

She reaches out and her fingers touch something damp and spongy. Biting back an exclamation of disgust, she pulls back her hand and wipes it on the leg of her trousers.

“We’re locked in a closet?”

“Prisons generally do not contain cleaning implements. Though it does lack the usual amount of janitorial supplies.”

“Why are we trapped in a closet?”

He turns his unblinking gaze on her. “I was hoping you would be able to explain that.”

Jyn lets her head fall back against the wall. “I don’t know. The last thing I remember was going to sleep in the safe house. You were keeping guard, you should know what happened.”

A pause. Probably scanning his databanks and memory. “I have no recollection beyond what you have just described. You went to sleep and I…I believe I may have been attacked with an EMP.”

Well, kriff. An EMP would have temporarily shut down all off Kaytoo’s processes. And if she’d slept through that and their subsequent abduction, she had to have been drugged. Or knocked unconscious somehow, though she doesn’t feel any soreness or dizziness that comes with being beaten or drugged.

“Anything on our location? Are we still on the planet?”

“I don’t know,” Kaytoo says, and there’s a tinny edge of irritation in his voice. “My scanners are not picking up anything beyond the four walls of this room.”

“And the ceiling,” he adds. “And the floor.”

“Can’t you blast us out? It’s durasteel, right?”

“My weapons have been disabled. The energy pack for my blasters is gone.”

Sithspit.

“However…”

“What?” Jyn climbs to her feet, using the wall as support. The darkness is throwing off her equilibrium. She reaches for the handle of the cleaning implement. At least it might make a good weapon if someone does finally show up.

Next to her, Kaytoo also rises. There’s a clicking sound, then a sharp humm begins to fill the enclosed space.

“They did not find Cassian’s latest upgrade.” 

Right. The vibroblade. Because Cassian’s droid wasn’t already crazy enough, and Cassian had given him the weapon to match his axe-murderer personality. Had Kaytoo been a biological sentient, Jyn’s pretty sure there’d be a manic grin on his face.

“You really think that’s going to work?” she asked, making sure to stay away as far from the sound of the vibroblade as possible.

“Our chances of survival are thirty-four point three percent higher of we try to break out,” said Kaytoo. “There’s also a very high chance I may self-destruct from boredom in less than twenty-four hours if I had to remain here with you.”

“Well, thanks,” Jyn mutters. 

The whine of the blade grows louder. Sparks fly.

**Author's Note:**

> Read part 2 [here](http://archiveofourown.org/works/10582446), written by bethagain!

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Squared Off](https://archiveofourown.org/works/10582446) by [bethagain](https://archiveofourown.org/users/bethagain/pseuds/bethagain)




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